Tag: The Parisian Woman

“If you weren’t a Democrat when you were young, you don’t have a heart. If you don’t become a Republican when you get old, you don’t have a brain.”

You haven’t seen Uma Thurman destroy someone like this since Kill Bill. The actress makes her Broadway debut as Chloe, the wife of tax attorney Tom (portrayed brilliantly by Josh Lucas), who is on the short list for a Court of Appeals nomination. The Parisian Woman chronicles his path to nomination in five scenes, as the couple navigate their relationships with their politically minded peers. Martin Csokas stars as a jealous lover, Blair Brown as a conniving Fed Chair, and Phillipa Soo as Brown’s rising star daughter.

One of the most compelling aspects of The Parisian Woman is its relationship to the current political climate, having been rewritten after its original run to accommodate the 2016 election. The changes manifest themselves both in simple callout jokes (at every one of which, no matter how lazy the reference, the audience feels compelled to respond) and a stronger overarching question as to what political actors should be doing in a system in which the rules seem to be simply tossed out the door.

While the former seems to capitalize on the popularity of political commentary springing up everywhere today, the latter is unique in the sea in that it casts doubt as to whether it is truly cynical or genuine about our current system. Most of the characters bask in the grey area between party lines, at once admonishing the President while capitalizing on the ever-increasing vacancies in his administration.

This uncertainty, though, is better manifested in the nature of the relationships between characters, which reveal new layers with every scene, forcing the audience to analyze every interaction for notions of sincerity. It is in this limbo of truth that the play finds its real merit theatrically, not in the hollow dramatics of political warfare reminiscent of a Scandal episode. (Much of the nomination drama seems to rely on the basis that Trump is only loyal to the person he mostly recently spoke to. Which makes for a joke, but not the most clever or dramatically inclined one.)

Go into The Parisian Woman with an open mind about its politics. Revel in its pockets of tenderness in an overwhelmingly cold political environment. Appreciate the subtle Bannon digs. Just don’t expect to find firm insights into the Trump era.